Tuesday’s Tiny Tip: Pomodoro Technique

This timer technique can be incredibly effective, especially when you need to focus on a task you’re reluctant to handle.

Developed in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, who I guess invented setting a timer, the pomodoro technique is a time-management approach that calls for working in focused 25-minute blocks separated by five-minute breaks. (He apparently used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer when he did this; pomodoro means tomato in Italian.) During this 25-minute stretch, you work exclusively on the task at hand — no getting up to pee, no looking at the phone, no checking the fridge to see if any new snacks have magically appeared.

When the timer rings, you’ve got five minutes (give or take) to do your peeing, snacking, Insta-scrolling, whatever. Then you go back to work, set the timer, and repeat.

I’ve been using this approach lately to get through tasks I typically distract myself from, like transcribing. As a journalist, I regularly need to transcribe recorded interviews to get the quotes and content. But I HATE transcribing. Hate. It. I can’t stand hearing my stupid voice, hearing myself interrupt my subject and then failing to ask the follow-up question that seems so obvious now. It’s an exercise in self-disappointment.

But with the pomodoro technique, I can power through! I still hate hearing myself, and I get antsy at about the 20-minute mark, but knowing I’m working in a finite block and that I’ll have a break when the timer rings makes me work so much more efficiently.

My piggie pomodoro timer

I used to spend hours transcribing a 30-minute interview. No kidding, hours. I’d listen to one or two sentences, then get up and have a glass of water. Listen to another few lines, then walk over to the window to see what’s going on outside. Another sentence, then check Twitter. It was excruciating.

But when I’m on pomodoro time, I don’t do that. I keep my ass in the chair and make progress. I work intensely for 25 minutes, then relax. And after a few pomodoro chunks, I switch tasks.

Even though I heard about this approach years ago, I only just finally put it into practice, and it’s helping so much that I wanted to share! (Who knows why we wait so long to try these things?)

Any other time-management techniques I ought to try? I’m ready!!